New Ploughshares Solo Now Available!

We’re excited to announce the release of our November Solo, “A History of China” by Carolyn Ferrell. Following the death of herfather, Sasha Jean attends a family reunion, after years of estrangement, with the uncomfortable knowledge that she has inherited the estate where her relatives live. “A History of China” explores the multi–generational stories that shape this complicated family.

Here’s an excerpt from the Solo.

You’d had a dream, coming back to the folks in North Carolina: that you’d get a chance to talk smoothly after they all finished eating and were in good spirits; that you’d lay out everything Bobby Lee’s scribbled will said, though in reality it was vague, not more than four sentences. The sun wouldn’t be too hot and the children wouldn’t be too unruly. Dogs, as they happened to wander back and forth from each house, would not frighten you with their larva-laden ears. This was your dream. In reality, you can’t recall a single time that the uncles, in their walking days, didn’t eventually get smashed drunk and start fighting with the women.

Author of the short-story collection, Don’t Erase Me, Carolyn Ferrell was awarded the Art Seidenbaum Award of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the John C. Zachiris Award given by Ploughshares. Her stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories of the Century and Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present. Ferrell teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives with her husband and children in New York.

About Ploughshares Solos

Ploughshares Solos are stories and essays too long for our traditional print journal that we publish in an affordable, digital format nine times a year. For more information and some great reading material, check out our previously published Solos, or the Ploughshares Solos Omnibus Volume 4.

Don’t miss out on a single Solo by purchasing a Ploughshares Solo Subscription! You’ll receive a year’s worth of Solos for $10. Subscribe today!